Armory building moving along

DOVER — Economic Development Director Dan Barufaldi said the sale of the old Armory is on track, though he still is unable to reveal some details

According to Barufaldi, the sale is “moving forward,” and the Dover Business and Industrial Development Authority is working on getting the purchase and sale agreement finalized.

“We have a customer for it and they have signed a letter of intent,” Barufaldi said.” We have the city general counsel dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.”

The next step would be to bring the agreement before the City Council for approval, something Barufaldi expects to happen on Sept. 25. At that point, information about the buyer, sale price and intended use of the building and land would become public, Barufaldi said.

The DBIDA has been looking for a buyer for the Armory since shortly after it was returned to the city in late 2011.

“We had to go out and see what we had and to do our due diligence,” Barufaldi said. “For example, we had to make sure that environmentally, this site was OK. We wanted to get all that documentation in place to make sure that everything was the way it should be.”

If the purchase and sale agreement is approved by the Council, the buyer can sign the agreement and put down a deposit on the property. Should everything go according to plan, Barufaldi expects to close sometime in mid- to late-October.

“A local business is buying the building,” Barufaldi said. “They intend to use that for their business.”

Barufaldi also provided an update on the DBIDA’s nascent efforts to establish a second Enterprise Park in Dover. The first Enterprise Park, located off Sixth Street on Venture Drive, has been an economic boon to the city’s coffers, and Barufaldi said the board is “considering options” for a similar park.

“I’ve been talking with the DBIDA board of directors about it for about a year,” Barufaldi said. “We don’t have a lot of parcels of land left at Enterprise Park. Some are quite small, so it limits what you can do with them.”

Barufaldi said the bond term on Enterprise Park I ended during the last fiscal year. In that time, the park brought in approximately $2.4 million.

“It’s now pulling off $497,000 a year in taxes,” Barufaldi said.

That, according to Barufaldi, goes into the city’s general fund. There are 15 companies currently located at Enterprise Park. Barufaldi estimated that those businesses employ over 400 people.

““I think that one of my interests in getting this done would be to replicate Enterprise Park I in terms of job creation, tax ratable creation and adding to the commercial or industrial tax base,” Barufaldi said.

Barufaldi added that it was too early to establish a timeline for a new development.